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Parish and Town Councils Code of Conduct

All Town and Parish Councils are required to have a Code of Conduct for Members and Co-opted Members of the Council, and the Code has to include provisions included in a Model approved by the Government. All Town and Parish Councils in West Oxfordshire adopted a revised Code with effect from 1st June 2007, and all members and co-opted Members of those Councils have to sign a written undertaking that they will observe the Code.

See Parish and Town Councils Code of Conduct for the full text.

District Council Code of Conduct

The District Council is also required to adopt a Code which, again, must include the provisions included in the national Model. The District Council also adopted a revised Code with effect from 1st June 2007. Please see:

West Oxfordshire Code of Conduct for the full text of the Code; and
Codes of Conduct for Councillors for the relevant page of this website

Complaints

Since 8 May 2008, complaints that a Councillor or a co-opted member of a Town or Parish Council in West Oxfordshire, or of the District Council, have not followed the code of conduct have be made to the District Council. Further information and guidance about this will shortly be available from this page, but if you have any queries in the meantime, then please use our General Enquiry Form to ask for more information, or write to The Monitoring Officer, West Oxfordshire District Council, Woodgreen, Witney, Oxon, OX28 1NB; or telephone 01993 861581.

Guidance

The Standards Board for England has produced Guidance on the Code, also available as a download from this page. The Board has also produced a series of factsheets on the Code, available as a single file download from this page.

Register of Interests

One of the requirements in the Codes both for the District Council and all Town and Parish Councils is for Councillors to register specified "interests". The registers may be inspected at the Council Offices at Woodgreen, Witney during normal office hours. A copy of the register for a particular Town or Parish Council may alternatively be inspected by arrangement with the Clerk to that Council - for details, please see Town and Parish Councils Information.

Standards Committee

As required by law, the District Council has a Standards Committee, which includes Independent (non-Councillor) Members and a representative of the Town and Parish Councils in the District. The duties of the Committee include promoting good conduct, including the provision of training for Members, and monitoring the operation and effectiveness of the Code, both for the District Council and for Town and Parish Councils. The Committee, via smaller Panels, is also responsible for considering complaints that a Councillor has not followed the Code of Conduct.

Please see: Standards Committee 2008-2009 for membership information.

Further Information on Codes of Conduct, Registering Interests and Complaints

Further information on the Codes and "Standards" issues is also available from the websites of the Standards Board for England and the Adjudication Panel for England.

You may also use our General Enquiry Form to ask for more informaiton.